"I can't think of any better representation of beauty," said actress Emma Stone, "than someone who is unafraid to be herself." While hacks have waxed poetic for ages about the elusive essence of beauty, women have been subjected to its capricious and pernicious demands since the beginning of time. Even the world's greatest athletes who gather quadrennially at the Olympics are subject to such sexist scrutiny, as if they had mistakenly been entered into a beauty pageant instead of a celebration of strength and skill. Now, a new generation of women are rejecting these externally imposed beauty standards and the destructively competitive climate they create. In a campaign launched by Japanese cosmetics firm SK-II, female Olympians describe how beauty is #NOCOMPETITION. It is more than a little eyebrow-raising for a cosmetics company to say that women should not worry about their appearances. Nevertheless, SK-II's effort is laudable, if nothing else for creating a forum for women to share their experiences and reclaim the narrative on beauty. Among the spokeswomen is soon-to-be three-time Olympian Kasumi Ishikawa, a table tennis player representing Japan. In the campaign's website, Ishikawa writes, "As I train for #Tokyo2020, I'm going to do my best. I won't let self-doubt hold me back. Beauty is #NOCOMPETITION." By sharing their thoughts and feelings, Kasumi Ishikawa and other Olympians empower other women to reject the pressure to conform to arbitrary beauty standards, unafraid to be themselves. Now that is beautiful.

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